About Us
The Qatar Foundation is a private, non-profit organization whose vision is to develop and realize people's full potential. Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned serves as the chairperson of Qatar Foundation and personally guides the organization's objectives and programs..
Qatar Foundation is the driving force behind Education City, a center for educational excellence in the region, where world-renowned universities share research and educate students in fields of critical importance to the GCC region. It is, therefore, in a unique position to organize this symposium series and co-host a conference of this kind.
Education City houses educational facilities from school age to research level and branch campuses of some of the world's leading universities, including: Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Texas A&M University at Qatar and Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar. It is also home to the Qatar Academy, The Learning Center, The Academic Bridge Program, Qatar Leadership Academy and Al-Jazeera Children's Channel.
Latest projects include the Qatar Science and Technology Park, a research zone committed to the development of regional entrepreneurs and young innovators, a Speciality Teaching Hospital, an Islamic studies centre and a school of communications and journalism.
UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1945. Its stated goal is to build peace in the minds of men through education, social and natural science, culture and communication. UNESCO is working to create the conditions for genuine dialogue based upon respect and shared values, and the dignity of each civilization and culture. The world urgently requires global visions of sustainable development based upon observance of human rights, mutual respect and the alleviation of poverty, all of which lie at the heart of UNESCO's mission and activities.
UNESCO functions as a laboratory of ideas and a standard setter to forge universal agreements on emerging ethical issues. The Organization serves as a clearinghouse for the dissemination and sharing of information and knowledge, while helping Member States to build their human and institutional capacities in diverse fields. UNESCO promotes international co-operation in 191 Member States in its fields of competence.
The action of UNESCO in regard to literacy is embedded in the Dakar Framework of Action (2000) for achieving Education for All and in particular in the United Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD) which was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly for the period 2003-2012 in response to the major challenge posed by illiteracy in today's world of emerging knowledge societies. UNESCO has been given the mandate of coordinating, stimulating and catalyzing the activities of the UNLD at the international level.
The UNLD addresses literacy within and outside schools and targets children, young people and adults. Its efforts will contribute to the Education for All (EFA) goals of increasing adult literacy rates by fifty percent; ensuring equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes; and achieving gender equality in education by 2015. Its also aims at ensuring that a mastery level of learning is attained by all learners and their quality of life is improved. The UNLD thus complements international poverty-reduction initiatives, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Moreover, as a global strategic framework for achieving the goals of the UNLD, UNESCO launched the Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE) in 2005. LIFE is being put into action in 35 countries that have a literacy rate of less than fifty percent or a population of more than 10 million people who cannot read. LIFE will be implemented over ten years and will be guided by three core principles: country ownership and diversity, links with national policy, and progressive phasing.
UNESCO launched the Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE) in 2005. LIFE is put into action in 35 countries that have a literacy rate of less than fifty percent or a population of more than 10 million people who cannot read. Eighty-five percent of the world's non-literate population resides in these countries.
LIFE will be implemented over ten years and guided by three core principles: country ownership and diversity, links with national policy, and progressive phasing.
LIFE aims at the empowerment of the individual and the community, with a special focus on women. This implies a bottom-up approach, based on the needs of the target group. Also, while literacy is the main thrust of LIFE, the link between literacy and development will be key to its success. Integrated approaches linking literacy with sustainable livelihoods, health, intergenerational learning, etc. will be developed. This is of particular importance if literacy programmes are to contribute to poverty reduction.
The 35 LIFE countries are:
Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone
Arab States: Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan,
Asia and the Pacific: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan
Latin America and the Caribbean: Brazil, Haiti